If Lord Wergaist was a pig, then Almina was the big bad wolf. Since she wasn’t an outworlder no one told her the wolf failed to tear down the house made of stone and eventually had his bad ending.

  Above them, Derina and Milita flickered in the air so fast it was difficult to see where they were going. The defenders managed to loose one ineffective volley before they found out why spellswords were a modern legend.

  Covered by Ioha’s shields and the commotion over the castle, Almina walked right up to the castle walls and knocked. They didn’t come crumbling down, but a deafening explosion tore a new opening through them, wide enough for two to ride side by side. A rubble of stone on the other side of the courtyard had shredded a unit of spearmen when Almina’s shrapnel swept across the cobblestones. Before the attack they had debated the approach, but Almina was too angry for any subtlety, and blowing up the walls was one way to cool her down a little.

  Ioha’s shields took a severe beating as they walked to the main gates, and Almina made them explode outwards, with pieces of splintered wood and bent metal reaching almost all the way to the town below.

  He threw up a tunnel of shields and stepped aside when the carriage with hostages and all of Derina’s infiltrators thundered out of the castle. This was also when any sane group would have fled after them. A continuous barrage of offensive spells depleted his shields at an arming rate. It wasn’t as if anything got through, but if he burned through his aura like this, they needed to be done fast. Against magic, he needed five times the defences for half the protection. In the long run, this wasn’t sustainable.

  Sounds of new explosions vibrated all the way up to the castle. Below them, both watchtowers burst afme, and the town-gates disintegrated in two blue-white expanding balls of superheated gas. The destruction of the town defences far outdid anything Almina had done up here, and it seemed unlikely any soldiers in town would run to the castle.

  “Almina, want the defenders outside?”

  “At your pleasure, Sir Questingtank.”

  Ioha walked to the centre of the courtyard. It was half theatrics and half a need for as much space as possible.

  Challenging roar, six defensive grids, three extra sets of hard shields around him, all punitive mass taunts, inferno, and after that, he settled into a defensive stance waiting with shield and partisan for anyone strong enough to withstand his mass taunts. To his right and left, Milita and Derina commanded the castle walls, protected by one of Derina’s spies from the hideout each. Almina stood waiting diagonally behind him for the first unlucky defender to show up, and the other diagonal was covered by the four men from Haldenvale. At the moment they chattered amongst themselves in distraught voices. Ioha didn’t understand the nguage, but he guessed their pride in coming from the only kingdom where protectors of the line still lived had just taken a beating.

  Odd, takes too long. Should I?

  No defenders showed up, but enemy spells nded on his shields and removed them one by one. Ioha had to recast their cover over and over again.

  Wrath!

  Oh, it’s an ability? Have to remember to move it to the taunts after this. Ioha disliked how his abilities sometimes took control, and he used them without even knowing.

  Two soldiers rushed onto the courtyard. Some kind of weak silent taunt then. The Haldenvale men cut them down with a few arrows. Damn! Smart guy. He’d need to train that taunt as well. Someone on the other side used sound magic, and it seemed Ioha’s mass taunts needed to be heard.

  “Almina, can you suppress a rumour?”

  “I guess.”

  “Even if it involves a god?”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Battle standard. Host of defence. Battle-hymn. The divine standard speared into the sky above them, and Valkyries circled down around it. Then song. The st points he gained added volume and tonal range, vastly empowering the sense of impending doom for anyone who chose to face him. And, this was by definition a divine hymn. Ioha doubted you could shut it out by extending aura.

  He keyed his next set of mass taunts to triggers he set up when casting battle-hymn.

  This time he forced a dozen soldiers out on the courtyard. Their eyes glowed with uncontrolled rage, but they still threw up from fear as they charged him. Heavy spears smmed into them from the sky, and Ioha funnelled them into his killing zone, where the Haldenvale men finished them off with arrows. When they died, each of them dissipated in a cloud of red vapour before it evaporated in the hellish fmes that fully surrounded Ioha after his test upgrade.

  On the walls, Milita and Derina had their own troubles when they got surrounded by Clevasti spellswords. Ioha couldn’t defend them fast enough, and when desperation rose in him, his dispy fshed several times. He flicked it open when the st attacker fell to several arrows. Defensive threads? No time. He cast it. Thin sticks shot out from him and fell to the ground. That’s it? The dispy said threads. He added a trigger and cast it again. His next key accelerated one stick above the walls, and this time it hung in the air until one castle defender ran into it and got entangled. Sweet! His dispy fshed twice, like it often did when he received a new ability and used it at once. The first ten or so points required very little training.

  With the new defences enveloping Derina and Milita from a safe distance they each got more room to act, and in duels too fast for a normal human eye to follow their superior abilities showed. That gave him time to create a tunnel of shields to the inner gate. He added yers to it while he strengthened his own shields. A never-ending stream of magic smmed into his defences, and Ioha had to resort to fill the courtyard ahead of him with fields. They didn’t protect much, but they triggered the spells flying in his direction. His shields broke almost as fast as he cast them. Someone on the inside had to be an uncomfortably strong mage.

  “Almina, done.”

  She ran through his tunnel and he released his inferno to follow her.

  “Mind getting behind me after you’re done?” he asked.

  “Fine!” She knocked on the gates with her sword.

  Ioha threw up an overpping yer of shields in front of her as soon as she knocked. The gates exploded inwards. Nothing behind them could have survived the expanding sphere of splinters and torn metal. They were inside.

  “How dare you!”

  You could dislike Lord Clevasti as much as you wanted, but you had to give him, he had a commanding voice.

  Almina took two steps. She probably wasn’t aware of how Ioha cast and released shields around her so they never hindered her movements but still always gave her protection. On a balcony, one archer took aim.

  COWARD!

  He jumped over the railing and crashed into the stone floor.

  “Akira Yoshida,” Almina said. “I’ll kill him and leave.”

  “You make demands in my home?”

  She lifted her sword, pointed it at a soldier, and Ioha watched as a string of darkness spewed out and engulfed the man. His remains fell, dry and shrivelled, to the floor. “Akira Yoshida. I’ll kill him and leave.”

  “What makes you think…”

  Her sword went up again. “Akira Yoshida. I’ll…”

  Three more soldiers died the same way. Two tried to flee, but Ioha taunted them and drew them close and set up his inferno. None sted more than a few seconds. Behind him, the Valkyrie continued their mayhem, but Ioha knew he needed quite a few more points in his divine abilities before they turned into a distance weapon he could depend on. The Haldenvale men were likely the ones who did the actual killing.

  The strongest of Clevasti’s troops were still outside. Milita counted as a C-rank and Derina as B. The Haldenvale people all C-rank as well. Add the two spies Derina brought as well. Ioha didn’t know how strong they were, but Derina hand-picked them. Together, they represented a threat the Clevastis couldn’t allow roaming around.

  Through the chaos, the sound of more detonations from the town reached him. Lord Clevasti wouldn’t see any reinforcements arrive here.

  Ioha’s voice was still keyed to the Valkyries outside. “Lord Clevasti!”

  “Yes?”

  “You saw me during the tournament two years ago.”

  “Yes?” The voice carried a hint of interest.

  “I have grown since. Hand Yoshida over before I force you all inside my inferno!” While he spoke, Ioha had to fend off a barrage of magic from a young woman. He taunted her. She died. “Hurry! You don’t have much time left.”

  “Hand him over? To you?”

  “Akira Yoshida. I’ll kill him and leave.”

  “You heard her.” Ioha felt a wry smile on his face.

  “He is a guest in my home.”

  “Lord Clevasti, you won’t have a home if you don’t hand him over.” They didn’t have much time. The adventurers Isjase had hired demanded they wouldn’t have to kill civilians, and the fight in the town would become uncontrolble soon. “Lord Clevasti, you won’t need one for that matter. I’m in no position to give orders to the Wari heir apparent.”

  “On what grounds do you come with such demands?” The lord sounded tired.

  “Kidnapping my guests is reason enough,” Almina said.

  “You attacked my domain. Kidnapping your guests is only a grudge according to federation w. You have no right to involve my domain.”

  “They were part of a trading caravan from the southern seas. Either you broke the trade treaty, or he did without your knowledge.”

  “Trade treaty?”

  “Houses Wari and Terenda organised the caravan. By federation w, we are obligated to hunt down the perpetrators. The Terenda heir apparent is on his way here as we speak. I will repeat it once more. Akira Yoshida. I’ll kill him and leave. Defy me, and I will allow Sir Questingtank to deploy his full powers in a poputed area.”

  My full powers?

  “Fetch Sir Yoshida.” Lord Clevasti caved in.

  My full powers?

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  You bastard! You bluffed?

  “Would you mind calling back your friends outside?”

  “On your word.”

  Lord Clevasti sighed. “I swear on my house I will hold my soldiers for as long as you visit my home if you do the same.”

  “For as long as we visit your home. Derina, we’re done!”

  Ioha released all his spells. Something fshed, a reflection, an arrow. COWARD! A middle-aged man came running down the stairs with a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. When he came all the way down, he went down on one knee and took aim.

  “What are you doing?” That was Lord Clevasti’s voice. For once, the voice wasn’t directed at the intruders.

  Ioha threw up a shield just in front of the man and marched across the floor. “With your permission, Lord Clevasti.” He locked the archer inside a cage of shields.

  “You have my permission.” The voice had gone old and very tired.

  Ioha released one shield and ran the terrified man through with his partisan, while the archer desperately tried to cw his way out of the invisible box. Humans or monsters, as long as they were sentient and lethally hostile, it mattered little. What made a monster wasn’t made of flesh and blood; it was the intent. Maybe it was a realisation, maybe it was an excuse. Ioha hoped it was the former.

  “I have a right to hunt you down for attacking my home.”

  “You have a right to try,” Almina responded. “When I have executed the criminal, I expect to leave this estate without being attacked. I would appreciate it if we could leave the town as well.”

  “You already attacked the town!”

  “Material damage only, with the exception of the watch towers. My people should be leaving right now.”

  Laughter escaped Lord Clevasti’s lips. “A diversion. A spectacur one. Well pyed.” He bowed. “If I may have the honour. Who pnned all this?”

  Almina shot Ioha a confused look. “I believe Sir Questingtank should expin that.”

  “So the young knight pnned the attack?”

  “No, not really. As I said, it’s better if he expined.”

  Lord Clevasti gave Ioha a quizzical look. “Then please.”

  While they waited for Yoshida Akira to be dragged here, Ioha offered some context by expining brainstorming, independent self-organising teams, decision-items, communication-events and priority-lists. After that, he slotted the actions and interactions of their dispersed parties into where they belonged. To be on the safe side, he omitted the parts that would compromise their future security.

  “Outworlders, huh,” Lord Clevasti said. “I should have attacked earlier.”

  Ioha smiled. “If I may. It’s too te now. You’ll create grieving people in Isekai, but we’ll conquer Wergaist in return.”

  “I doubt you have the popution needed.”

  “Ten thousand young adults more every year. More than we can easily assign to farming and carpentry. I believe we do.”

  Lord Clevasti stared through the rubble where his inner gates had once stood, and out the destroyed outer ones as well. Isekai grew by his capital annually.

  Four soldiers finally dragged a screaming Yoshida Akira down the stairs. The man would die for a mistake. By now, Ioha was certain he himself and Harvali were the real targets. Not that targetting the Terenda family was very smart to begin with, but they were known for military campaigns rather than devastating small raids. The Terendas simply weren’t very good at manhunts, but the Waris were.

  Almina and Lord Clevasti stood facing each other.

  “By federation w, a criminal vioting a treaty shall die by hanging or decapitation,” Almina recited.

  “By federation w, a criminal vioting a treaty shall die by hanging or decapitation,” Lord Clevasti repeated.

  “I am the witness and executor. Akira Yoshida is a criminal who has vioted the trading treaty.”

  “I am the witness. Akira Yoshida is a criminal who has vioted the trading treaty.”

  These guys sure weren’t big on fair trials, but the federation at least had some kind of judicial system in pce.

  “I swear this on the federation w and with my god as witness.”

  “I swear this on the federation w and with my god as witness.”

  Divine aura encircled them both, and the entrance hall filled with a voice. “We have heard. We see you both speak the truth that you know. We accept your oath.”

  And throwing gods into the equation made fair trials just a tad less important.

  “You can’t do this!” Yoshida Akira roared.

  “Hanging or decapitation?” Lord Clevasti asked.

  Almina flicked her sword. Yoshida Akira, once the richest and most powerful outworlder in this world, crumbled to the floor, his head rolling away from his body. “Would you mind sending his remains to the capital? We will inform Isekai.”

  With a bow, Lord Clevasti accepted her suggestion.

  “Then we will take our leave. Outside the castle or outside the town?”

  “Outside the town. You have my word.”